


Carmillia’s Party

by duh_i_read (duh_i_write)



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-17
Updated: 2010-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:58:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duh_i_write/pseuds/duh_i_read
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Darla attends a party she wishes she hadn't, Drusilla has a rough night and Carmilla learns to let sleeping sprites lie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carmillia’s Party

**Author's Note:**

> Carmilla, the original lesbian vampire, predates Dracula by at least twenty years.

Darla wondered, as she sipped blood and champagne, why she didn't just leave. She hated Carmilla, with her overly extravagant parties and her over inflated sence of importance. Just because someone wrote a penny dreadful or two about her doesn’t make her a vampire queen. Darla wandered out of the parlor and over to the ornate sweeping staircase, tapping  the banister with a nail.

Still. She has not met with many of her own kind in this city. It would be most impolite to refuse an invitation to such an exclusive party. Especially, as she accept another flute of Daybreak from a women wearing only gauze and pearls, one with such lovely appetizers.

“Darla, you look so modern! I love what you've done with your hair.” Carmilla came down the stairs in a cloud of silk and perfume, kissing both her cheeks.

“Thank you, Carmilla, it's all the rage in the states you know.” She accepted the kisses with ones of her own.

Carmilla caressed the fringe of her hair, just grazing her cheek. “Yes, yes, I know. All the girls in Vogue are wearing their hair this short.”

“I do like to keep up with the times, makes blending in much easier.”

“Naturally. I daresay the ladies love a women who's in fashion. Though your Childe seems to be doing quite well without doing either.” Darla felt something small and hot like a small crucifix at those words, before she looked up to the next floor where Carmilla’s gazed at.

Drusilla. Dressed as she was last time Darla saw her, in a long ivory and onyx velvet dress, talking to a little redhead fledge who looked like she wanted to devour Drusilla. Darla’s smooth expression dropped to blatant surprise. Two decades--at least two decades had passed since she’d seen any in her family aside from her sire. To find Dru, without the idiot boy, smiling prettily at a fledgling (who frankly was beneath her)  stirred possessive feelings long since buried.

“Excuse me,” she hissed, Carmilla’s tinkling laughter angering her more. There would be time later to jab a broken flute into the other vampire’s eye, but for now, she needed to talk to her crazy vampire.

“Ohh I knew you’d be here—nine magpies screamed it to me,” Dru said as she ascended the stairs.

“Leave us,” she told the fledge, who bowed her head a few times in supplication and left. She hated Carmilla, but she was a good sire,  instilling unflappable discipline in those she created that Darla, in her weaker moments, envied.

“Drusilla, what are you doing here?” Darla must be out of practice, that question sounded less demanding then it shood.

“A little nymph came to me and asked me to attend.” Drusilla leaned in, whispering in Darla’s ear, “Can’t cut the cake without me.”

Some things never change: the smell of cloves, blood, coal smoke, the idiot boy and talc power were the same.

“She’s right,” Carmilla said, sanding on the stairs, “Drusilla has graciously agreed to be my medium this year. Isn’t that great?”

Had they been in private, Darla would have beaten her for such a thing. “Dru, tell me you didn’t.”

“She asked so nicely.” Drusilla took a sip of her blood filled glass.

Darla didn’t want to even ask but—“The fool didn’t try to stop you?”

The lovely smile on Drusilla’s face folded up into a cold expression. Maybe she finally rid herself of him.

“I am very cross with my knight. He is off stalking the slayer in the grass and has left me waiting under the hornbeam trees.”

With any luck, the slayer will end him. More pressing was getting Dru out of whatever cockamamie séance ritual Carmilla planned this year. Snake oil and chancery in the times before, but Dru wasn’t just a pretty face. Drusilla and magic rituals, no matter how made up, did not mix. Taking her by the wrist, Darla asked in her most promising tone, "Wouldn't you rather go find some orphans with me, my dear?"

"And miss the main event? Come now Darla, stop trying to ruin my fun." Carmilla snapped her finger and the redheaded fledged came up next to them.

"The little ones will still be wrapped in dreams when we are done," Drusilla said, " I have missed hunting with you, grandmum." Darla just_ knew_ Carmilla was sporting some wicked smile, she could hear it as she addressed Dru.

"We are ready if you are, Darling." Darla pinched Drusilla's wrist tight, but they younger vampire shook off her grip and extended her hand to the redhead.

"Lead on, little vixen." Drusilla blew her a kiss as she walked down the stairs on the arm of the redhead. The audacity!

Carmilla touched her arm. "You can't leave now Darla, you’re my fifth. Besides, it looks like you want to keep and eye on your girl, so you might as well stay. The festivities are about to begin."

She allowed Carmillla to lead her down the stairs and through the French doors to what looked like an empty dinning room. Fine china lined three of the wood paneled walls, with a forth papered in pink flowers. A chalk circle with a pentagram and other symbols was drawn on the floor,  the other women were seated cross-legged around the symbol. Darla nodded to the women with her dark hair coiffed upward--one of Dracula’s former brides. Carmilla sat down across from Drusilla, who was on head point of the pentagram, leaving her to sit at the other foot of the pentagram across from the redheaded fledge.

"Darla, can you light that candle near you? Iiona, could you move that bowl a little closer to the middle? Good," Carmilla said.

From a beaded bag slung over her shoulder, Carmilla took out a daguerreotype of a sullen faced girl  and sat it right in the middle of the five candles and the bowl of blood. Darla rolled her eyes. The sooner this was over, the sooner she could take a bottle of champagne and abscond withDrusilla.

"Everyone join hands. We shall begin." Darla took Carmilla and Iiona’s hands in hers as Carmilla began to speak.

"My beloved Laura, I offer you gifts from undead existence into death. Commune with us Laura, walk among us."

The other women echoed her words as one: "Our beloved Laura, we offer you gifts from undead existence into death. Commune with us, Laura, walk among us."

A minute passed. Another. Then another. Carmilla repeated her words and so did they. Darla noticed she had chalk or powered bone or whatever Carmilla used to draw the circle, on her hem and stockings. If her silk stockings got filthy--

"Our beloved Laura, we offer you gifts from undead existence into death. Commune with us, Laura, walk among us."

They waited. Nothing. Why didn't she have another Daybreak before this silly ritual began?

"My beloved Laura-" Darla's fingers tighten as a feeling like touching frayed wires went through her, straighten her spine. The candle flames jumped.

"Carmilla," Dru said, in a voice much lower then her normal breathy tone. _Damn. _

"Laura?" Carmilla asked, " My love? Is that you?"

"I heard your call to me, Carmilla. " Hair fell into Darla's face as wind started up inside the room. Carmilla only had eyes for Drusilla, and not for the increasingly panicky looks on the women around her.

"Oh Laura, I have missed you!" Carmilla said as tears tricked down her cheeks.

"I haven't missed you, Carmilla,"

"W-what?" Drusilla-as-Laura laughed at Carmilla's confusion.  Served Carmilla right for invoking forces much bigger then her. Iiona was shaking her hand in her's but they were stuck by the mystical forces.

"Do you think I would welcome you back lover? That I would thank you for the existence that damned me to hell?"

"Such cruel words!" Camilla was crying for a different reason now, as was the redhead. Darla really _really _wanted to leave, to no longer be the channel for an angry spirit. Iiona was tugging hard at her hand, pulling at the skin, to no avail.

"Don’t you want to know what will happen when we are reunited, my darling? That there is an eternity of suffering and pain for all of our ways? Was I to thank you for such a gift?"

"I saved you. Saved you from a life of mediocrity and servitude." Carmilla's game face rose, so like Dracula as she lacked ridges and yellow eyes.

Drusilla-as-Laura  didn't flinch in the face of the snarling vampire. "You have damned me and in turn, you all are damned."

"I loved you. I gave you everything," Carmilla hissed, her unnecessary breaths visible in the  suddenly cool room. "You have to gall to tell me I'm going to hell? _You _were the one who saved me from the demon hunters. You drank_ my_ blood, you ungrateful whore."

"Carmilla, stop antagonizing her," Darla said with a bloom of fog. The temperature in the room dropped, the unnecessary breaths the redhead took also visible in the candlelight.

"I can't believe I've been pinning over you so long." Carmilla jerked her entire body back, but the circle held firm.

More laughter."You think you could end this on your terms? This vessel is far more powerful then you know. Her mind is shattered, which makes it much easier to possess. I may stay a little longer. "

Not going to happen. Carmilla's Childe was a spoilt brat when she was alive, and she was even more of a brat now that she's dead. "Carmilla do_ something_," Darla said.

"I'm thinking." Carmilla was struggling to wipe away the chalk circle with her feet."Topple the candles and everyone let go."

Darla took a breath and in tandem, the four of them kicked over four of the candles. Drusilla screamed, falling over limp and breaking the circle. A trembling lassitude fell over Darla, as if she hadn't fed in a week. Ignoring the desire to lay on the floor with the rest, Darla crawled over to where Dru lay, the smell of her blood bringing up her true face. Rolling Dru over into her arms, Darla growled when she saw the trickle of blood in the corners of her mouth and nose.

"Darla, is Drusilla...?"

"We are leaving, Carmilla. You'd better pray that we don't cross paths again. I will not forget this night." Darla cuddled her girl close. Carmilla remained on the floor, caressing the sobbing redhead’s back. Iiona was trying to light her cigarette, but her hands shook too hard. With Dru in her arms, she strode out of the room, her boots striking the floor and fledges sobbing the only sounds.

As she opened the door, Carmilla spoke, "I'm sorry. I truly am. I just wanted to speak to my beloved again."

"Sometimes," Darla said, "you are better off not knowing."

Darla didn't bother closing the doors. The women in the gauze and pearls had a driver waiting but she waved her off. She caught a cab easy enough, not even bothering to kill the man after he dropped them off at her hotel. No one said a word as she walked in carrying a bloody Drusilla.

Once in her room, she stripped off Drusilla’s dress and stockings and ran a shallow bath. Darla was mopping the blood from her lips when Drusilla shot up.

“For her he kissed your heart with wood he cuts the world open like a letter and she shoves him in one two three for five vampires and she is back to life but one brings her back to death burning burning spark closes the yearning maw for her always for her they fight with the twisted thorn around their wrist twice reborn and twice dead and I am left alone.”

She fell limp in the bath, sobbing.

Darla had no idea what Drusilla was talking about, but she might go out and stake Carmilla on principle. Drusilla was crying and coughing up pink tinged water so she has no choice but to crawl in the bath too, straddling Dru to break her from her hysteria. She smacked Dru; her head leaving cracks in the ceramic. Dru's face  changed from the pain, but Darla kept going, screaming just as loud as Drusilla was, st_upid stupid girl messing with forces with the likes of Carmilla have we taught your nothing_ not noticing until Dru wrapped an arm around her neck and kissed her and though it's been years doesn’t knick her lips once with her fangs.

Their coupling isn't surprising and doesn’t take long after that: digging her left hand into Dru's scalp and slipping the other between her thighs, fingering her to crisis in a move more memory then finesse, her sweet girl reaching the pinnacle when Darla sank her fangs in her neck. Drusilla wailed marvelously and Darla goes over the edge on the taste of her pleasure alone.

Her stockings are ruined.

"My stockings are ruined."

"We’ll go find more tomorrow. I’ve nested near the shops," Drusilla murmured, licking the water off her face. Darla rolled over so they are laying side by side.

"How do you feel, my sweet girl?"

"Mmm, much better. That nasty girl left such a mess inside me. So much dust and ash. It will take weeks for me to be clean."

"You should stay with me, Dru. I don't like you out by yourself without someone looking after you." Not when she was going to wander off with any fool vampire and not the ones they're related to.

"I can look after myself." Dru rolled over again, pulling Darla’s arms around her. "But I have missed you. I shall like to do a little shopping."

"And hunting. Perhaps some parties, too. There are vampires a class higher then Carmilla in this city." Drusilla trilled with happiness.

"Wonderful hats and parties and pretty girls in pretty dresses to eat. Oh I have missed you."

Her stockings were ruined and her solitude was over. Darla didn't care one bit.


End file.
